Ghosts Beneath Us: A Third Spookie Town Murder Mystery (Spookie Town Murder Mysteries Book 3) Read Free Page B

attractive for her age. Abigail observed the way the two interacted. The woman often reaching out to touch the man’s withered hands or he smiling thoughtfully at her. They appeared to truly love each other and that touched Abigail. As she passed by them she caught a fragment of their conversation.
    “It’s a good price, Henry. Perhaps it is time we sell the old place and retire to California? We could be nearer the kids?” the woman was saying.
    “Ah, Athena, sweetheart, you don’t mean that. You hate California. You love living here. All our friends are here, our past and our lives. And the kids have their own lives and families. They don’t want to bother with us. So what if someone offers us a good price for our home, it makes no difference. We’re not selling.” A coughing bout stopped the man from speaking further and his wife put her hand softly over his. The gentle look she gave him said it all. She’d do what he wanted her to do.
    Frank was waving at Abigail from their favorite booth along the opposite wall, a cup of coffee in his other hand halfway to his mouth. Their friend Martha was sitting across from him and she waved, too.
    Frank’s gray streaked hair was tied back with a rubber band. It’d gotten a lot longer since she’d first met him. He liked it that length saying, now that he was no longer a cop, he was never going to cut it ever again. Though she had to admit, because he kept it clean and combed, with his intense blue eyes and sharp angled nose and face, long hair looked good on him. Not many men could carry off the look or the tiny silver earring in his ear, but Frank could. Sometimes he sported a mustache and had for the last year or so. Abigail liked the mustache as well. It made him look scholarly. He could have been a college professor or something.
    “Good morning, Abigail,” Martha addressed her as Abigail scooted in beside Frank. She grinned when Frank and Abigail kissed each other hello and Frank pulled her close. Martha got a kick out of the two dating and being in love. But that was because she’d been pushing them together since the beginning. Martha was the town’s matchmaker and pleased to be.
    “So you got the kids off to school and you’re footloose and fancy free, huh?” Frank reached over and slid his hand down her cheek in a gesture so tender no one who saw it could deny he loved her.
    “They’re at school, but I can’t say I’m totally footloose and fancy free…I’ve got to put the finishing touches on that courthouse mural after I leave here and hopefully after that I’ll collect a nice big fat check.” Abigail felt a sense of contentment sitting there with her two friends. Being with Frank and Martha in a place she’d come to think of as a second home, with great food, made her happy. But then small things, a good cup of coffee on a cold day, a decent cheeseburger when she was hungry, money to pay the bills in her bank account, a day with sunshine and true friends around her, always made her happy. She never asked for more than the world or life could give her and was grateful for every tiny good thing that came her way. She smiled at the handsome man next to her as he took her hand.
    She’d been officially dating Frank Lester for a year and in the last few months they’d finally become lovers in every sense of the word. He’d already told her he loved her and had since the first time he’d met her three years ago in Stella’s Diner, but he’d taken his time wooing her until the ghost of her first husband, Joel, had released her heart. Frank was a good man who cared deeply for her and she had finally let herself care for him. That morning as she sat there eating, talking and laughing with her boyfriend and her friend her future looked as sunny as the day outside.
    “How’s the book coming, Frank?”
    “Slow. I’m stuck somewhere two-thirds in and have no idea where it’s going. I rarely have writer’s block, but whatever this is it’s